AN elderly nun was rushing to get to Mass when she was involved in a fatal road accident, unaware that the clocks had gone back and she was more than an hour early, an inquest heard.

Sister Denise Wood, 82, suffered multiple fractures after she walked out in front of a moving car on London Road in Redhill on the morning of October 31 last year.

She died three weeks later on November 17 in East Surrey Hospital with the main cause given as pneumonia although it was acknowledged by doctors that the underlying cause was injuries resulting from the crash.

However the inquest at Woking Coroner’s Court on Wednesday (April 13) heard that on the morning of her death, the clocks had gone back.

The crash took place at 7.22am, as Sister Wood was rushing for the 8.30am morning mass.

Father Laurence Quin-Morris told coroner Michael Burgess that the Sister Superior had recently experienced “periods of confusion” and a deterioration in her general health which doctors had attributed to dementia.

When asked if it was possible that she had been confused about the hour change as she headed for St Joseph’s Church on Ladbroke Road, Fr Quin-Morris said: “Yes, it’s possible she was confused while crossing the road.”

Sister Wood was born in Malta in 1928 and entered the church in 1951. She lived at Sisters of St Dorothy Convent on Linkfield Lane, Redhill, a short walk from where the crash took place.

David Green, who was driving the silver Ford involved in the collision, said by the time he saw her it was already too late.

He said: “I didn’t see the lady. She just stepped out in front of me.

“I had no chance to stop, I hit her and she just went down. It was only after the impact happened that I applied the brakes.”

A police investigation concluded that the car had been travelling at around 24 mph at the time of the collision and that there were no mechanical faults with either the car or the traffic lights.

Mr Burgess brought the hearing to a close, concluding that her death was the result of an an accident.

He said: “By all accounts it was a relatively low speed collision and she was thrown forwards some six metres.

“On the evidence before me the injuries she sustained from this resulted in her death.

“I extend to her family, friends and parishioners that she served my condolences.”